“Stuck in the Middle With You” was written as a parody of Dylan’s more paranoid, drug-induced ramblings, which is another way of saying it’s a parody of every single Bob Dylan song ever recorded. The line “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right” is a dig at how Dylan would often generalize a group of people by cleverly referring them to as clowns or jokers.

Rafferty also borrowed Dylan’s distinctive singing style, which sort of sounds like Neil Diamond trying to eat oatmeal while having a stroke.